Nouvelle Vague: 3

So how does this normally go? An album full of cover versions. Surely an opportunity to compare and contrast.

Which songs live up to the original. Which ones bring out the subtleties, the emotion and the atmosphere of its precursor. Sure, that would make for an interesting review as we provide VH1-style pop-ups of useful information about the original songs and then cap it off with either "a more than adequate tribute", "lacking in the warmth of the original" or "does little which hasn't been done before it."

Really though, don't you want to know whether or not 3 is a good album by itself, regardless of its songwriters. For this is all they are to Nouvelle Vague, every song is taken, stripped for spare parts and reassembled in the band's image. You wouldn't remove the gearbox from an '73 Oldsmobile, whack it inside a Dodge Viper and then compare performance would you?

If you doubt this, one need look no further than "God Save the Queen". How do you compare a fiery, almost a-tonal stripped down punk rant with a neighbourhood-set lush folk serenade complete with whistling which even makes the word "moron" sound romantic. Romantic is a good word, the experience plays like the lament of a former revolutionary, ruing her former life and the chaos it caused without effect.

If anything, the album is a little too cohesive. Taking their songs and running them through a bossa-nova/new-wave filter does two things. Firstly it makes for a continuous, pleasant listening experience, secondly, and less impressively, it also removes much of the edge from the songs.

Indeed, it's possible to drift through the entire album completely unaware of the fact that you are listening to songs which shaped and defined an era. There are ones where the magic still shines through. "All My Colours" takes a lounge-rhythm with lightly-brushed hi-hats and pairs the current selection from the revolving line-up of session vocalists with Echo and the Bunnymen front-man Ian McCulloch. The band also capture an uneasy atmosphere throughout the song, contorting the formerly sweet song to a land filled with fog, danger, regret and loathing.

The aforementioned "God Save the Queen" also marks a high-point for the album. Then, there are the misses. "Metal" sounds like a fun afternoon spent in the BBC sound effects department with a vocal performance so breathy that the studio engineer must have died from a carbon-dioxide overdose.

Rarely captivating, but always pleasent, we're not sure it's a recommendation, but you'll never think "hey I know this song".